Charming
by DragonGrin - former TeenTypist
Summary: Hermione is just finishing her Prefect rounds and finds Seamus alone, practicing his charms work in the common room. She's always willing to help a classmate. One-shot. Hermione/Seamus. Set in 6th year.


**Author's Note:** Still working on Mugglefied, and brainstorming a potential long 8th year, Seamus/Hermione story. I've never written an 8th year story before, but I have some thoughts of it. In the meantime, this is just a short fluffy Seamus/Hermione piece set in sixth year. I did some work on the next Mugglefied chapter tonight-working on bringing all the loose threads of that story back together and getting it all polished.

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Hermione had just come in from doing her rounds with Ernie MacMillan. There was a boy who could use someone to deflate his head. It was hard to imagine anyone could be as pompous as him and still pretend to have good manners. It wasn't good manners to hold the door for someone if you elbow them in the ribs trying to get to the door first.

She almost wished she'd been on rounds with Ron, but doing rounds together was so awkward when they weren't speaking to one another. Not that Ron was doing much speaking at all, she thought sourly. He hardly ever came up for air anymore, he was so busy showing Lavender his tonsils. Sometimes she just wanted to grab the nearest bloke and snog him and see how Ron felt about that. Not that she expected Ron to feel much or anything. He had the emotional range of a teaspoon.

She was three quarters of the way across the seemingly empty common room before she noticed a figure by the fireplace. She thought about leaving him in peace, but then thought better of it. He didn't seem to have noticed her come in.

"You're up late, Seamus."

"So're you. But I imagine you're already done with this lot." He gestured at the book on his knees and the roll of parchment on top of it. He'd been working on it all evening and didn't seem to have gotten anywhere with it. He thought maybe he'd have better luck with the common room empty now, but it hadn't seemed to make any difference. It just wasn't coming together.

She glanced at the page the book was opened to and recognized the illustration. "Struggling with the cooling charm?"

He shut the book, not caring that it was going to crease the roll of notes he'd had in it. "I just can't seem to get it."

"Well, you won't make any progress with your book shut, that's for sure," she pointed out. She sat herself on the arm of his chair and picked up the book from his knee, opening it again. "The spell isn't really all that bad. I'll help if you want. You show me how you're doing it, and I'll figure out what you're doing wrong. I finished this one last week."

He waved his hand, frustrated. A bit presumptuous of her to assume he was doing something wrong…but he probably was. "I tried to work on it earlier, but Lav and Weasley were sitting over there being positively disgusting. I couldn't concentrate. You'd think they didn't know where to find a good broom closet. Someone ought to be distributing maps."

Hermione wrinkled her nose. "I don't think a broom closet sounds very romantic, but at least it'd spare the rest of us from having to see it. I can't imagine wanting the whole common room watching like that. Ron just—" she cut herself off abruptly. Thinking of him would do now good whatsoever. Her voice was brisk. "Let's just work on that spell. You show me what it is you're doing, and we'll work from there."

He looked up at her, his sandy hair falling in his eyes. "Y'sure? I know it's late an' all."

"I"m sure. I don't have anywhere else to be and I don't think I could sleep right now anyway. Let's do it. Go ahead and stand up, and face me so I have a clear view of everything." She was perched still on the arm of the chair and toed her shoes off, letting her toes wriggle for a moment in just her stockings.

Seamus stood up, wand in his hand, and pushed his hair back, looking at Hermione. "Y'sure? Y're not worried about getting blown up or anything?"

"Seamus, just give it a go. If it makes you feel better…" She pulled out her own wand and cast a shielding charm. "There. If you accidentally blow anything up, it will just be yourself. Feel better?"

"Loads." He bit his lip and mouthed the words of the spell to himself a couple of times before speaking aloud. He moved his wand the way the book described, said the words…and nothing happened. He tossed his wand down with disgust. At least he hadn't blown anything up.

She dropped her shield charm. "Well, your pronunciation was right, and the hand motion was good, but I couldn't tell what you were focusing on. What were you trying to cool?"

The young man frowned. "The air? The whole area around me?" A delighted smile broke out on Hermione's face, causing her housemate to scowl. "What?"

"This spell isn't meant to cool a whole area. Trying to cool the air…that'd be like trying to spread your power out over the whole room. If you wanted to heat or cool a room, that's a different spell entirely." Her heels bounced against the chair. "You just need to focus on something concrete." She felt around in her pockets, looking for something that would work for him. She came out with a slightly squashed chocolate frog. "It's gone a bit soft, but here, give this a try." She held out her hand with the chocolate frog.

"Thanks. Here goes…" He spoke the words clearly, and gave his wrist a twist, pointing at the chocolate frog.

Hermione shivered; the chocolate had gone cold…and so had her hand. Was it paler than it had been a moment ago? She tried to move her fingers and found they were a bit stiff. "You did it!"

He grinned and grabbed the chocolate, his hand brushing her fingers. The triumph fell from his face."You're like ice. Merlin, did I do that?" He dropped the chocolate frog on the table and grabbed her hand. It was stiff and looking a bit blue around the edges. "It's your wand hand, too, is it?"

"I'm afraid so." Hermione tried to wiggle her fingers without much effect.

He looked doubtfully at her and pushed his hair back again. "I could try a heating spell but I might boil your blood or something awful like that." He tucked his wand into the holster on his belt and settled back into the chair. He clapped his hands together hard once, and rubbed them together fiercely, generating heat. Then he sandwiched Hermione's hand within his own. He felt her fingers start to loosen up a little. "Is that helping?"

"Definitely." She breathed deeply, watching him work on her hand. He was biting his lip and working his hands along her frigid right hand, with a warm, firm pressure.

Seamus's fingers traveled up from the tips of her fingers up her arm, assessing how far he'd damaged her arm. She was cold past the wrist. "Apparently I was a bit exuberant with that spell." He let out a breath of air. "This isn't working. Could you…?" He reached out with one hand and pivoted her on the arm of the chair so she sat with her feet on his leg. He could reach her arm better now. He clapped his hands together again to warm them up and starting working his way down from her wrist to her fingertips again. Her skin became softer under his touch.

Hermione sighed softly without realizing it. "That's much better."

"Glad to help. Sorry about nearly giving you frostbite there. Didn't meant to." He held her hand in one of his for a moment and was looking up at her, her wild hair framing her face.

"It's okay. I'm glad I could help. We could practice again another night. To make sure that you can confine the spell to just the object you want to enchant, and not everything nearby."

He was startled. "You'd risk standing next to me with a wand in my hand again?"

"Well, I'm pretty close to you right now and I don't seem to be coming to any harm," she pointed out. She was very aware of his leg under her stockinged feet, his hand holding hers. He was quite warm, and she doubted it had anything to do with the fire he'd been sitting beside.

Seamus swallowed. "Very close."

"Seamus?"

"Yeah?"

"You're still holding my hand," she said softly.

"Oh. Sorry." His ears started to go pink as he tried to let go.

She didn't let him let go. She took a breath. "Don't be sorry. I like it." Kissing in the middle of a crowded common room wasn't her style, but an empty one…? She told herself not to think about it. He was warm. And he was so close by…

Seamus leaned forward cautiously. Was she saying what he thought she was? Everyone knew Ron and Hermione were going to get together one of these days. Not that there was much sign of it with Ron and Lav going at it. "Oh hell," he muttered, and he closed the gap, kissing her. He didn't let go of her hand, but he used his other hand to cup her face.

Lips against lips, they kissed, soft and tugging. Hermione found herself slipping off the arm of the couch and settling inadvertently onto Seamus's lap, breaking the kiss with a laugh. "That was…fun."

"Fun?" he asked. He'd been hoping for sexy. Or at least sensual. Fun?

"Fun," she said firmly. Her toes had curled as they kissed. She was a little breathless, her cheeks flushed. "That's a compliment, you know. I've often been told I don't have enough fun."

He grinned. "Well, I think you're plenty of fun." He leaned in and kissed her again, threading his fingers through her mass of hair.

She allowed the kiss to go on for some minutes before breaking it, resting her head against his shoulder. "Thanks. I think I needed that tonight."

"Anytime."

Suddenly gaining awareness of the fact that it was quite late and she was laying across Seamus's Finnegan's lap in the middle of the common room. Her Prefect badge was still pinned to the front of her robes from her earlier patrol. "Seamus, you're not going to tell anyone, are you?"

"That you helped me with my charms homework? Absolutely. The rest of this?" He gave her a squeeze around the waist. "No one would believe me if I tried."

" _Seamus_."

"Your secret is safe with me. No one shall ever know that Hermione Granger only makes out in the common room when it's nearly empty and there's an irishman sitting by the fire, struggling with his homework."

Laughing, Hermione pried his fingers off of her waist and maneuvered herself to her feet, picking up her shoes with one hand. She leaned in and kissed him one more time. "One for the road." She padded softly across the room and up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

Seamus watched her go. No one would believe him if he did tell. And Lavender or no Lavender, Ron and Harry probably wouldn't react well. Though right that moment, given half a chance, he'd like to kiss her again, his roommates' opinions of him be damned. He took himself upstairs with a grin on his face.


End file.
